Kenneth “Cadenza” Castro and Michael “MP the King” Endino provided the spark for Nexplay EVOS as they took down TNC Pro Team ML, 2-1, in the MPL Philippines Season 9 on Saturday, March 12.
The midlane duo was NXPE’s one-two punch in the deciding Game 3 as the perfect initiation from Cadenza’s signature Jawhead fed MP the King’s Karina pick with sure kills to quickly reach its power spike.
A 6-1 tally in the early goings set the tone for NXPE as MP the King went uncontested with his farm. TNC was able to rally back into the game with its solid base defense before the TNC players managed to pick off Ureshi’s Esmeralda for a 5-on-4 advantage in the final Lord fight.
NXPE, though, powered through to the adversity as Cadenza initiated the clash to contest TNC'sLord take, enabling MP the King and Jhonwin “HESA” Vergara’s Brody to deal damage to TNC from afar.
TNC won the Lord fight but NXPE took down four of its heroes to secure the series win after the 18-8 Game 3 triumph.
MP finished with a 5-1-8 KDA while Cadenza set the pace with a 2-3-11 tally. Hesa also had a quiet but explosive outing with a 7-2-4 line on the Brody
It was also MP the King who started the ball rolling as he unloaded a 5-1-5 KDA on his Lancelot in NXPE’s 15-3 series opener. TNC scored the first two kills in the match but NXPE roared back in the second turtle fight to take control of the game the rest of the way.
Hesa added an impeccable 7-0-3 KDA on the Popol and Kupa while Cadenza had a perfect showing of 0-0-0-13 score.
TNC returned the favor in the second game as it prevailed in the low-scoring 6-2 affair to tie the series. Daniel “SDzyz” Chuu survived the early game disruption from Cadenza’s Hilda and Jeniel “Yellyhaze’s Bata-anon to finish with a 2-0-3 line.
Escalera provided TNC the damage and zoninig during objective fights with a 1-0-4 line.
NXPE overtook TNC in the standings with a 4-2 record while the latter fell to a 3-3 win-loss record.